Chapter 338 I Misread It

Clara squeezed her small hands tightly around the material of the jacket. Balling it in her fists, clenching so tight it almost hurt.

It was the only way to keep her hands in place.

Inside the fires were well stoked, a tightness in her stomach and a needful ache that had spread to every inch of her body.

Nessa’s lips were soft, and the pressure against Clara’s mouth was gentle while, at the same time, hungry. Although their kisses had become daily, they never lasted long, a minute at most. Still, it was the most incredible minute of her life.

The daily ‘practice’ was helping Nessa become more comfortable with physical contact. They had even begun to hold hands every once in a while.

It was slow, and after each session, Clara was left feeling hot and bothered. But even still, she cherished every damn second of these moments together.

No matter how many times they practiced, Nessa’s kiss left Clara feeling drunk and starved. But even with that feeling, she was able to keep control of herself. Nessa’s hands on Clara’s hips were the real problem.

The tingling pulse that was spreading from the tips of her fingers down into all the secret places that Clara ached to have touched, stroked, and generally attended.

They had agreed that Nessa would be the one to decide the pace of their physical relationship. If she felt like moving further, it was up to her.

So here Clara sat on a table with the woman she loved standing between her legs.

Holding a death grip on Nessa’s jacket in order to suppress the natural desire to let her hands wander to all the places Clara knew would make Nessa cry out in all the best ways.

Just then, Nessa softly squeezed Clara’s hips. An action Clara was in no way prepared for. The enticing jolt ran straight through to the tight feeling low in her abdomen and she could not stop the soft moan that came from her lips.

Nessa, in another surprising move, deepened their kiss..

Clara couldn’t take it anymore. She pushed against Nessa’s shoulders, separating them.

“Are you ok?” Nessa asked through small pants.

“Whoa… just whoa…” Clara whispered, also panting as she tried to calm her heart which felt like it was beating so hard it would burst through her chest at any moment.

“Was that… bad?” Nessa asked.

“Goddess no!” Clara replied instantly. “But… I wasn’t going to be able to hold back… it was too much of a surprise.”

Nessa blushed and looked away with a proud smile.

“Come on, Nexy, you know how much I want you,” Clara laughed. “It can’t be a surprise that I have a hard time holding myself back.”

“I just know that you have more experience than I do… I didn’t think what we have been doing would be much of anything to you,” Nessa replied.

Clara felt a painful stab in her heart, she looked away.

“Nessa, I won’t deny that I have been with other women,” Clara said quietly. “I honestly didn’t think I would ever find a mate, so I saw no reason to hold out for one.”

Nessa saw the look of shame on Clara’s face.

“Clarebear, I didn’t mean–”

“No,” Clara interrupted. “I understand, it makes sense, logically, to think that short kisses would be simple for me. With my experience.”

Clara sighed, and then looked up at Nessa. She smiled.

“Honestly, kissing isn’t a big deal. It never has been with anyone else,” she said.

Nessa lowered her eyes.

“But the difference,” Clara continued, “is that I was never kissing you.”

Nessa looked back up at Clara.

“Kissing you, whether for a second, a minute, or the rest of my life… is always….”

Clara closed her eyes and took a deep breath blowing it out softly. She bit her lower lip as she smiled. Then, opening her eyes, they still swirled with hunger.

“So much more….”

The blush on Nessa’s face renewed as she chewed her own bottom lip. She quickly turned away.

“We should get back to work,” she said quietly.

Clara let out a soft giggle as she nodded and hopped down off the table.

Nessa suddenly turned back with a curious expression on her face.

“Oh… uhm.. Nexy?” she asked with a shy smile.

Clara laughed.

“Yep,” she said lifting her chin and standing on her toes playfully. “That’s my name for you, I have decided. Do you know why?”

Nessa shook her head, but the slight smile and the way she chewed the inside of her lip told Clara that she had a suspicion.

“Nessa plus sexy equals Nexy,” Clara grinned.

“Oh,” Nessa nodded and tried to hide the smile as she quickly turned away and hurried off to her computer.

Clara covered her mouth as she attempted to suppress the giggle, then turned to return to her own awaiting work pile.

She took a deep breath.

There wasn’t a lot left for her to work through. She had already sorted through the majority of the abandoned documents, many of which she had turned over to the science department. There were project ideas and improvements that were not currently in development that Clara had felt could benefit the whole of Summer.

There was only one cabinet left to explore and two small boxes.

At this point all the boxes she had sorted through appeared to be more personal items than anything. Trinkets, and souvenirs from all his exploration and travel across the world. Photographs, and a few letters between Cain and Fiona; Clara had read one and then handed the rest to Fiona in a stack.

It seemed like a good place to start. If the trend kept up, she would be able to return whatever items were in the boxes to Fiona by the end of the day.

The first box was like the others. She found a small stuffed animal, a rabbit. It was old and worn, but clearly loved. Clara smiled, wondering if this had been a cherished childhood possession of Alpha Caleb.

Setting the toy aside she pulled out several framed pictures, Fiona and a small boy, clearly Alpha Caleb, were the main models. There was one picture of the three of them together.

As Clara pulled each picture out, she couldn’t help but wonder why they were in the boxes to begin with.

In fact, thinking back to the first day they had entered the office, there were no personal effects on display. No decorations, personal touches, nothing. But all the things she had found made it clear that Alpha Cain had at one time made his office a home away from home.

Clara had asked Caleb if the office had been packed up after Cain’s death, but he had told her everything they had packed had been removed, and it hadn’t been much.

So, when had he packed all of these things up? Why did it seem like he might have known he wasn’t returning?

Clara pushed aside her questions and focused on sorting through the last box.

This box had been at the very back, the box itself was cardboard and looked worn and warped, as though it had been packed away from many years. Which was why it seemed strange that when she opened the box, it wasn’t as filled with the grime and dust of time as the others had been.

Clara looked inside to find only a few items. But these were already clearly different than the rest of the boxes. Reaching in she began to pull them out one by one. Jars of dirt, plants, some other

substances she would need to take to a lab to have identified. It was clear these jars once had masking tape labels, but they had all been ripped off.

Setting the jars aside she reached in and pulled out the strangest of all the items she had seen. A Rubik’s cube. She turned it over in her hand, wondering why it was put into this box when something strange happened.

A rattling sound came from the cube as she turned it in her hand.

Clara furrowed her brows. Looking closer, she found one of the squares slightly different from the rest. She applied pressure to it with her thumb until she heard a soft clicking sound, and an entire half of the cube loosened.

It was a treasure box. Clara smiled to herself before opening it to look inside. There was a small black velvet drawstring purse.

“What are you?” she whispered.

She considered leaving it closed, just in case it was a gift for Fiona, would it be alright if Clara saw it first?

But in the end, curiosity won over consideration.

Opening the bag there was only one item inside. It was a necklace. A simple leather string holding an off-white sphere with small windows. Lifting it up to the light above her, she was able to see something inside, but what it was she didn’t know.

It was strange, but the possibility that there was some meaning to it for Fiona, made Clara feel uncomfortable looking at it too long. After putting it back in the bag and locking the cube once more, she returned to the box.

The last item in the box was something wrapped in cloth. She pulled it out and unwrapped it. It was a journal. Cain had several journals throughout his filing cabinets and boxes. Most pertained to the various projects he had been working on.

Clara opened the journal to a random page. There were sketches of plants, animals, and a few anatomical drawings. Then, she turned to another page in the book, reading a few lines of the entry.

Her eyes went wide, and her breathing stalled.

She swallowed, trying to wet her suddenly parched throat.

Clara looked away from the page, she took a deep breath, trying to calm the panic that was rising in her chest.

“I misread it,” she whispered to herself looking up at the ceiling. “I misread it, I misread it…. It’s impossible.”

She swallowed again and then slowly lowered her eyes to the page again.

To her horror, she had read the page perfectly.